Made my own lines since I started, since I like to work on hobbies at home. I have two bars, 25m and my new one is either 19m or 27,5m lines. With my main one, 25m I used front and fifth d-pro liros 410dan and back lines 230 dan. Gray strong 950dan and redline as well. Splicing those lines is very simple. Hardest to get were the colored coat lines, meaning the end pieces. Bought those in a kite store.

Expiernce: When sewing the end pieces try a couple of times before. With a normal sewing machine it can be quiet tricky to hit the lines throu the coating lines. You will also need a proper room to measure out the lines under tension. Make sure to add all the stopper balls at the right places, since especially the highest one is crucial for correct flag out after release. My lines tend to wear at a certain place due to loops and stuff. If you put a knot-loop-combination on both ends of the backlines you can turn them around after a while.

Have fun! Nothing beats the feeling of working on your EQ and later having a great session.

I did some work on my 2011 North bar...wanted 32m lines, so I took my 25m line bar and did the 'easy' thing and made 3 longer center lines that go from the top ring up to the front of the kite. Of course, two new longer steering lines were also necessary.

The problem with that approach is that you end up changing the angle of the two power front lines as they meet the kite. I've flown the kite a number of times this way and didn't notice any problems. I got lucky and a friend happened to buy a used 2011 32m North bar unmodified from the factory. I was fortunate enough to analyze it side by side with another original 2011 25m north bar I have, and the upper V sections are identical. The additional length on the 32m factory bar is achieved by having a longer white 2.5 mm line that goes to the top ring. The 5th flagging line is also correspondingly longer (the blue line that runs through the loops on the main heavy white line), as well as the steering lines.

I think that having the correct V up top is probably important in subtle ways as it must modify the shape of the kite as it flies given the different pull angle. I'm going to re-modify mine so it is same as the factory 32m lineset so the kite is presented the same angle of pull it was designed for.

I have on order what I believe is the correct 2.5 mm dyneema line so I can extend the center main line. Once I have the main center line and blue flagging line made longer, I can reuse intact the upper portion of the V from the original 25m set up. The heavy line I have on order is white "Marlow D12 2.5mm". The two steering lines always need to be extended and can be any good and readily available spectra or dyneema kite line. Or, reuse original steering lines and add extensions? I don't like extensions, they can snag when launching, causing one to abort the launch if no helpers are available.

The red/pink line from the blue flagging line down to the ring at the chicken loop will be reused as is if not too frayed. That's easy enough to replace.

I will be inserting and sewing the small pieces of line into the main white center power line for those little loops that hold the blue flagging line. V30 polyester thread, UV protected.

I'm pretty sure there will be some tweaking to get it perfect. Especially getting the 5th center line just right. I'll build in some extra length so I can play with knots at the beach to tweak the center line.

Don't neglect pre-stretching every line you use. A 32m length of virgin dyneema can elongate 30+ cm with just your body weight leaning into it. I know, I've done it.

Enjoy your mods. As Babel said, it's a great feeling to work on your own stuff.

I wised up early on (circa 2008) that a) North kites are greatb) North Iron heart is greatc) North bars are crapd) North lines are crap

Above is more true than ever in 2013

So I've been making my own 5th line bars from scratch for years, using Q-power and better bars (does not snap in half, thicker diameter, bigger depower line hole, better grip. ) Never had a problem evah.

No constrictor knots on my North 2011 lines. The main heavy line has small pieces of regular flying line inserted into it (use a fid), and sewn in place. These create the loops to hold the 5th blue/white line along-side this main heavy line. If you look carefully on the thick line, you'll see stitching that holds the inserted line in place.

Hey NYkiter, The pic I put up was the factory line, not my handiwork...yet! Still waiting for delivery of the critical piece of 2.5 mm line to make this modification happen.

There is stitching though the main heavy line, plus through the piece that was inserted to hold it in place. Without any stitching, those loops would pull out quite easily.

Those loops do not take any load, they are there to keep the blue 5th line in close proximity to the main thick line. What happens during normal operations is that when you depower down below, you shorten the main thick line, so the 5th blue line is left flapping loose. If it wasn't through those loops, that 5th would flop all over the place, creating a potential hazard, not to mention it would look kinda crappy just flopping around.

The blue line will take the load after a QR release, in which case the loops serve to keep the thick white line from tangling, essentially hanging from the loaded blue line.

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